World News - Dredging Done For Mud-Mired Museum Carrier But Timing Of Next Attempt To Move USS Intrepid To Dry Dock Is Uncertain

A Navy-backed dredging operation to clear bottom mud from around the USS Intrepid is complete, and high-powered tugboats are ready to drag the historic aircraft carrier from its Hudson River mooring, but there is no word when the ship will be moved to a New Jersey dry dock for a two-year overhaul. A much-touted plan to move the 36,000-ton World War II relic on Nov. 6 was called off after the ship's rudder and four 15-foot propellers dug into the mud, thwarting efforts by tugboats to dislodge it. Officials have indicated they plan a second try before winter sets in, but Suzanne Halpin, a spokeswoman for the floating military museum, said Thursday she had "nothing to announce" concerning a timetable. The Navy hired a private contractor to clear mud from the ship's stern and starboard side, and the project was completed this week, said Pat Dolan, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Navy Sea Systems Command. She said the dredging had removed more than 35,000 cubic yards of mud.... http://www.cbsnews.com

THE plane sometimes referred to as the ‘Guantanamo Express’, used by the CIA to transport kidnapped suspects to secret jails, has been banned from landing at Irish airports in future, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told a European Parliament committee. The plane landed at Shannon after taking Abu Omar from Germany to Egypt on February 17, 2003, where he is still being held incommunicado and tortured, according to the committee’s report. However, Mr Ahern refused to hold an independent investigation into the use of Shannon and other airports by CIA rendition planes, saying he relied on assurances he received from the Bush administration. He said he raised the issue with the US in 2004, a year before the Washington Post exposed the renditions and secret jails....http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=19691-qqqx=1.asp

A study claims the declining teenage pregnancy rate in the US is down to better use of contraception rather than young people abstaining from sex. The US government has promoted abstinence as its preferred way to cut the teenage pregnancy rate. But the American Journal of Public Health study found it accounted for just 14% of the drop in conceptions among 15 to 19-year-olds since 1995. UK experts said the finding showed an abstinence-only policy did not work. The study was carried out by New York's Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute, which specialises in sex education research. It concluded that 86% of the decrease in conceptions was due to improved use of contraception. Pregnancy rates for the 15 to 19-year-old age group fell in the US by 27% between 1991 and 2000. The study found that abstinence was responsible for a slightly higher proportion of the drop in conceptions among the 15 to 17-year-old age group - but the figure was still only 23%....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6160489.stm

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said Iraqi forces will be ready to assume security control of the country in June 2007. "Iraqi forces will be... fully ready to receive this command," Mr Maliki said in an interview with US ABC TV, to be aired later on Thursday. He was speaking hours after holding talks with US President George W Bush in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Mr Bush has said US troops will remain in Iraq "until the job is complete". The president said after their meeting that it was important to speed up training for the Iraqi security forces. According to a transcript released by ABC in advance of the broadcast, Mr Maliki outlined a plan to transfer security control to the Iraqi army. "At the beginning of next year we will increase the training of our forces... when they reach an acceptable level, we can talk about transferring power from multinational forces to Iraqi forces...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6197038.stm

The European Parliament and EU governments have struck a deal on wide-ranging legislation to control the use of toxic chemicals in industry. The draft law, due to come into force next year, is designed to make firms prove the chemicals they use are safe. The deal comes after drawn-out talks, with environmentalists wanting tough action and industry groups seeking to avoid laborious rules. The rules affecting 30,000 chemicals still require EU assembly approval. "We're trying to ensure that the chemical substances in the medium and long-term will be controlled and will be replaced when they are dangerous," said Socialist MEP Guido Sacconi. The European assembly will vote on the deal on 13 December before member states formally accept the new rules, which should be phased in over time by 2018. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6199326.stm

Lebanon - Hundreds of thousands of protesters from Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian opposition allies massed Friday in downtown Beirut seeking to force the resignation of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops. The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and its allies mobilized their bases for the protest, arranging to bus supporters from all over Lebanon and handing out free gasoline coupons to people in remote regions. The crowd, which police estimated at 800,000, created a sea of Lebanese flags that blanketed downtown. Hezbollah officials put the number at 1 million — one-fourth of Lebanon’s population. Saniora went about his schedule in what appeared to be a tactic to ignore the throngs that quickly filled the streets. With heavy traffic reported on highways leading downtown, pro-government factions urged calm....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15981439/